Welcome to Real Debate Wisconsin (RDW). This is primarily a conservative blog but we always welcome input from all points of view. Things get heated upon occasion but we ask that our readers do their best to keep things civil and respect all participants. We always welcome guest posts, so if there is something you would like to share feel free to email me at fkd1015 at yahoo dot com.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Self-conscious about what you wear while working out? A Dutch gym plans to introduce "Naked Sunday" for people who like to huff and puff in the buff.

Patrick de Man, owner of Fitworld gym in the town of Heteren, said he got the idea in part from two of his customers who are avid nudists.

"I heard that some other gyms are offering courses on 'pole-dancing' as a sport, so I thought: Why not bring something new to the market?" de Man said.

He said the response had been overwhelming — positive and negative.

The 70,000-member Dutch Federation of Naturists was curious to see if Fitworld's plan would work, spokesman Bernd Huiser said.

"We recently conducted a large survey among our members, and most prefer to exercise with their clothes on," he said. "The most popular activities (for nudists) are things you do outdoors, like walking on the beach, or swimming in a lake, or maybe gardening."

De Man said the first question Fitworld customers were asking was whether it would be sanitary.

Nude exercisers would be required to put towels down on weight machines and to use disposable seat covers while riding bikes. All machines would be cleaned and disinfected afterward. "We clean them every day anyway," he said.

The Racine Education Association (local teachers' union) weighs in on the neighborhood schools debate. They usually do not take a pubic stance on issues and referenda because there's would not bode well in the PR department. However, in this case they have come out in support of continued bussing and forced integration practices.

What is concerning about their position is that is was not one that was advised by the membership. No survey was held or poll taken by the building Reps. Some secret subgroup met and decided that this is the way to go. So, the group representing most RUSD teachers did not ask for input from them.

What makes their stance even more laughable is the reason for it.

I am paraphrasing The NAACP has done work for many years so it is in our interest to aid them in their cause.

Translated: One of the liberal brethern is fighting a battle, we better side with them or face the rath.

WINDLEY KEY, Fla. (AP) - A dolphin's toy that resembled a bomb scared spectators Wednesday and prompted officials at a marine park to call 911. A dolphin playing in a tank at Theater of the Sea surfaced with several items, including one that looked like a homemade bomb.

The toy in question was a softball-sized glass jar containing a black substance and covered by a white substance, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said.

Authorities said about 15 people, mostly employees, evacuated the facility around 11 a.m. while the sheriff's bomb squad investigated, The Key West Citizen reported.

January 31, 2007

“Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.

“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”

If you need a dream catcher to filter out the nightmares while you are driving, you might want to also get yourself right with the Lord and buy one of those dashboard Jesuses, too, because you'll be meeting him sooner rather than later. Jib

I would like to propose that all future weapons be tested on al-Reuters and Al-AP journalists. Clint

As a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee,Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms

By Peter Byrne

In the November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethicsreform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee,Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethicalbehavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by herown ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts.

As chairperson and ranking member of the Military ConstructionAppropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005,Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year forspecific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interestswere largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefitedfrom decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.

Each year, MILCON's members decide which military construction projectswill be funded from a roster proposed by the Department of Defense. Contracts tobuild these specific projects are subsequently awarded to such major defensecontractors as Halliburton, Fluor, Parsons, Louis Berger, URS Corporation andPerini Corporation. From 1997 through the end of 2005, with Feinstein'sknowledge, Blum was a majority owner of both URS Corp. and Perini Corp.

While setting MILCON agendas for many years, Feinstein, 73, supervised herown staff of military construction experts as they carefully examined thedetails of each proposal. She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings tosupport defense projects that she favored, some of which already were orsubsequently became URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approvedby MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.

In her annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports, Feinstein records asizeable family income from large investments in Perini, which is based inFramingham, Mass., and in URS, headquartered in San Francisco. But she has notpublicly acknowledged the conflict of interest between her job as acongressional appropriator and her husband's longtime control of Perini andURS--and that omission has called her ethical standards into question, say theexperts.

Over fifty years ago, Linda Brown was an eight year old black child that had to cross Topeka, Kansas to attend a school that was designated as an all-black public school, while her white friends were free to attend the neighborhood school, just a few blocks away. The decision of the Supreme Court, in their ruling regarding Brown v. Board of Education, made it unlawful to separate children by the color of their skin, and striking down the courts previous decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed separate but equal schools. Over fifty years later, there is a fear that a neighborhood school plan would return us to the injustices of the past.

I am offering a plan that assures that neighborhood schools won't take us back to those injustices. The plan calls for all children, district wide, to be assigned to the school closest to their home. The District would maintain district wide school choice with bussing provided for students who receive free or reduced lunch. The plan also calls for all schools to be considered in the neighborhood school concept including our magnet schools. Magnet programs will be kept intact but may have to be moved to different locations. To attract talented teachers to inner city schools, the District will provide specific training and pay incentives. Additional resources should be provided to inner city schools for counseling and social services. Multiculturalism will be included in the curriculum district wide. Lastly, capture as much diversity as possible, while maintaining sensible contiguous boundaries. The School Board will monitor annually that all buildings are equitable and that resources are expended based on need.

Many communities, including Milwaukee Public Schools, have returned to neighborhood schools, realizing the benefits to students, parents, neighborhoods and taxpayers. The benefits to students include little or no time spent on buses, the opportunity to be more involved in after school activities and the ability to receive help with school work after school. The benefit to parents includes the ability to be more involved in their child's education. The neighborhood benefits by increasing pride and concern for their community, and will hopefully lead to citizens and community leaders becoming more involved. For the taxpayers, savings should be seen by reduced transportation costs and/or more money going directly to the classroom.

Segregation, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is the policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes or ethnic groups, as in schools, housing and public and commercial facilities, as a form of discrimination. Drawing boundaries by neighborhoods and allowing the freedom of choice is color-blind. Whether you are Black, White, Hispanic or any minority, all would have the ability to attend their neighborhood school and the ability to choose any school in the district.

This plan is similar to the Milwaukee Neighborhood Schools Initiative outlined in the 1999 Wisconsin Act 9. We might be able to petition the state to grant us the same provisions Milwaukee has, which include provisions for facility bonding and additional aid.In the thirty plus years of RUSD's self-imposed desegregation policy, the achievement gap has not narrowed significantly. It's time we rethink how we educate children. It's time to believe that all children have the ability to learn and succeed. It's time once again to have the school be the center of the community, and that all schools will be great schools.

Seriously, how much are you screaming Democrats willing to excuse when presented time and time again with evidence of unethical behavior by your leaders? It becomes more and more true every day you only care about ethics on one side of the aisle.

A deal in the desert for Sen. Reid?A bill he wrote could have affected the friend who sold the land.

BULLHEAD CITY, ARIZ. — It's hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee pension fund that he controlled.

In 2002, Reid (D-Nev.) paid $10,000 to a pension fund controlled by Clair Haycock, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor and his friend for 50 years. The payment gave the senator full control of a 160-acre parcel in Bullhead City that Reid and the pension fund had jointly owned. Reid's price for the equivalent of 60 acres of undeveloped desert was less than one-tenth of the value the assessor placed on it at the time.

Six months after the deal closed, Reid introduced legislation to address the plight of lubricants dealers who had their supplies disrupted by the decisions of big oil companies. It was an issue the Haycock family had brought to Reid's attention in 1994, according to a source familiar with the events.

If Reid were to sell the property for any of the various estimates of its value, his gain on the $10,000 investment could range from $50,000 to $290,000.

It is a potential violation of congressional ethics standards for a member to accept anything of value — including a real estate discount — from a person with interests before Congress.

In a statement, Reid's spokesman Jon Summers said that the transaction was not a gift and that the price was due to the property's history and the fact that only a partial interest was sold.

Reid's action on the lubricants issue was unrelated to the sale and reflected the senator's interest in fairness for small businesses, Summers said.

Reid "has never taken any official action to provide personal financial benefit to me, and I would never have asked him to," Clair Haycock has told The Times. Haycock's son, John, who runs the petroleum-products distribution company with him, said in a recent e-mail that it was "absolutely wrong" to connect the land sale and Reid's lubricants legislation, which did not pass.

Exotic dancers from across Alberta will be doffing their G-strings to raise money for three young Edmonton boys suffering from a rare disorder.

As the Sun reported last week, Nikki Miranda's three boys - Tyler, 7, Jordan, 4, and Riley, 2 - need $1-million-a-year in therapy that isn't covered by the government because it has yet to be approved in Canada.

"I saw their picture in the paper and I started crying. They're so cute and so little," said Rylee, a 24-year-old Edmonton stripper.

Rylee, who didn't want her real name published, said she and her boyfriend were discussing the ailing brothers' plight when they came up with the idea for a stripathon.

After contacting the Sun, Rylee OK'd her idea with Miranda and then approached Showgirls promotions manager Paul Ballach. He didn't hesitate.

"It's not fair for children to go through life like that," he said.

Ballach is scheduling a massive fundraising stripathon at Edmonton's Showgirls for either March 25 or April 1. A second stripathon is also tentatively set for the next day at the new Showgirls location in Grande Prairie.

Ballach said he's also planning a silent auction and estimates both stripathons could raise in excess of $20,000.

Between 30 and 50 strippers are expected to lend their help. Each dancer will donate all of their earnings and tips to the worthy cause, Rylee said.

"Every girl that I've talked to, they're like, 'Yeah, we want to be a part of it,' " she added.Customers will also be encouraged to donate.

Miranda said she has no hang-ups about the looming stripathons.

"I don't care who they are, they're people. I don't care who helps," she said. "I just want to be a mom. I don't want to be a 24-hour nurse."